Kelly McParland: Stephen Harper has good reason to offer lectures to Europe

Stephen Harper has good reason to offer economic advice to Europe

European leaders are evidently growing testy at the lectures directed their way from Canada and the United States. Stephen Harper and Barack Obama are the only two G20 leaders who are refusing to kick in more cash to the International Monetary Fund as a safety valve for Europe, and Mr. Harper suggested Monday the “great majority” of leaders support Canada’s argument that Europe can solve its own problems.

Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, responded snappishly, telling reporters: “Frankly, we are not coming [to the G20 summit in Mexico] to receive lessons in terms of democracy and in terms of how to run an economy, because the European Union has a model that we may be very proud of.”

In diplomatic terms, that’s the equivalent of “up yours.” It is understandable that EU leaders might resent interference from abroad, but in this case Mr. Harper has a sound case to make. The EU economy is anything but a “model to be proud of.” The Mexican summit is just the latest in a seemingly never-ending round of high-level sessions called to seek a solution to a crisis that has brought one country after another to the brink of insolvency, and may yet end in the dismantling of all or part of the Eurozone. The latest threat of an EU-wide meltdown was only barely avoided on Sunday, when Greece voted by the slimmest of margins to accept a punitive austerity package rather than face eviction from the Euro club.

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And while Canada is anything but immune to the painful impact a European collapse would entail, few G20 countries would likely hesitate to swap their economic record for Mr. Harper’s, given the chance. While Europe and the U.S. alike are struggling to stay afloat, Mr. Harper is juggling several initiatives that will pay ongoing rewards well into the future if he can pull them all off.

Chief among these would be membership in the TransPacific Partnership, a round of trade talks that would create a Pacific trade pact bigger and more up-to-date than the North American Free Trade Agreement. The National Post’s John Ivison reports that Mexico and Canada have been invited to join the the U.S. and the other eight TPP members. No deal has been finalized, and Ottawa is reportedly balking at some conditions, including demands for an end to trade management in eggs, chicken and dairy products. Loss of those protective measures would be deeply unpopular in Quebec, but it is a small price to pay for a much larger reward, and changes are long past due in any case.

At the same time Mr. Harper is angling for inclusion in the Pacific club, Ottawa is deeply engaged in talks towards a free trade deal with Europe itself, which may be concluded as early as this year. And the CBC reported Tuesday that the prime minister would use the Mexican summit to detail advances made in moves toward trade ties with China, which the Conservative government has been courting assiduously since long before an official visit to Beijing in February.

On yet another trade front, Ottawa was finally able to join Michigan’s state government last week in announcing a new bridge linking Windsor, Ont. and Detroit, a long-sought project that should end chronic traffic snarls at the busiest border crossing between the world’s two biggest trade partners. Ottawa views the bridge as so essential — the existing span is more than 80 years old and plagued by gridlock — that it devised a unique formula to bypass political wrangling in Michigan, and will pay Michigan’s share of the costs, recouping the money later through bridge tolls.

The project, which could cost up to $4 billion, is “an investment in the future — in the future of the North American economy, in North American trade and North American manufacturing,” Mr. Harper said.

Such high-flown words are to be expected from politicians, but in this instance Mr. Harper has cause to be proud of the record his government is building on the trade front. If Canada hopes to be more than a resource economy dependent on raw materials it can dig up and sell overseas, it must act on all fronts to produce a healthy and growing economy. Expanded trade is essential to that, and the Conservatives have worked diligently to expand access and open new markets. Mr. Barroso may not like being lectured, but Canada’s noteworthy success in a struggling world is something Europe could learn from.